Lee County Port Authority hires new police chief

The Lee County Port Authority Police Department has been under fire for months by its own officers.

Thursday, July 13th 2017, 10:54 pm EDT by Delia D'Ambra

Updated:

Thursday, July 13th 2017, 11:35 pm EDT

The Lee County Port Authority Police Department has been under fire for months by its own officers.

On Thursday, the department has a new top cop. We spoke with officers who say the new leadership needs to clean house on the command staff.

Shawn Chamberlain spent his first day on the job meeting most of the staff at his new department. A formal meeting was held Thursday night at Southwest Florida International Airport so officers could meet their new chief.

We were asked to leave that gathering by current Deputy Chief Daniel Brophy.

Shawn Chamberlain is a former deputy chief of police at Saint Paul, Minnesota Airport. The Port Authority is paying him almost $120,000 a year to do the job.

The Port Authority has made no public announcement of his hiring or allowed us to speak with him.

Officers said change that could come with Chamberlain’s arrival must start from the top down.

"Everybody works with a fear," said retired LCPA Officer Lazaro Gonzalez. "They make you feel like they're after you. Nobody can talk, nobody can say anything. It is total fear."

He said he walked into an environment of fear every day during his nine-year tenure at the airport.

Gonzalez retired in June because he said he was fed up with being bullied and seeing co-workers who were younger and less experienced than him rise through the ranks.

"The only reason people have received promotions in the past was because of their personal relationships and friendships," said Teamsters Local 79 business agent, John Sholtes.

In December 2016, for the first time in department history, officers voted to unionize with Teamsters Local 79. They cited that things had gotten so out of hand with command staff favoritism and unfair doling out of promotions that they had no other choice but to bring in a union.

"The intimidation by the group. There's a particular group that if you don't belong to them, they come after you for anything," Gonzalez said.

Since January, the Port Authority has been trying to hire someone to fill former Chief Jack Cavanaugh's spot. He abruptly retired after the union vote’s success.

Chamberlain is now in charge and Gonzalez said he needs to make things right.

"Put on his pants and forget about the third-floor or the management, and take care of business. That's his first step. Finding out from the guys what's really going on and then taking the steps to take proper corrections."

Gonzalez said the new chief will have to investigate problems himself by talking one-on-one with officers and not relying on what he calls, a corrupt command staff.